Storyline
Litany is a sci-fi fantasy universe set in an unimaginably distant future. The crusts of Mother Earth has been mutilated and strung apart due to an unknown apocalyptic event long faded from history, where a select few of the countless billions of humanity set fourth on giant "arks" to a new world: Sagittarius. Imperial legend foretells that the arks' landings were a catastrophe, for only one of the five arks managed to find their way on the planet, with the other four drifting away from all contact, finding themselves caught in the gravitational pull of large stars, or perhaps even finding new worlds. Since the ark's landing on Sagittarius, the surviving human's understanding of technology had regressed to that of a feudal level. Thousands of tribes splintered from the once unified colony, creating kingdoms all over this frightening new planet. In time, tribes became kingdoms, kingdoms became empires, as technology slowly regained it's long climb of advancement to where it is today. Several thousand years have passed, and the Sagittarian humans have finally bound together as a single entity, seeing the next phase of their development skyward as they began to colonise the stars, but never in their deepest of dreams did they expect to be met with violence out in the cold of space, by other entire star-spanning empires controlled by none-other than their millennia-forgotten brothers of the four lost arks Now the three major galactic superpowers fight for universal conquest, led by their array of emperors and archangels, fighting endlessly for centuries, and yet little has changed. Will these off-cast colonies of humans die out in the fires of its own ignorance, or will it at last realise its true destiny? This is Litany, a world of conscription; of suffering and unimaginable hardship. To the newborn eye, the world may seem beautiful, but underneath this thin shell of ignorance lies a a very cold and frightening world. Aspects of the Litany Universe Science *Aside from starships, all technology, fashion and artistic taste for the galaxy is similar to that of the early to the late-1940's world. *Modern (aka "modern/present" = through the eyes of people within the Litany universe) science doesn't recognise Atoms. Only the Ecclesiarchal Dominion of Empyrion recognises Evolution as science, but even then it's still heavily tied to their religion. However, there are a sparse few outcast intellectuals out there that have the funds and self-devised technology to know of and study the existence of true science. There is not a government within known space that will accept their existence. Culture *The Nova Anglian Empire has become greatly similar to the Roman and British empires, being greatly inspired by the grace and romanticism of the ancient western world as observed from the historical fantasy sagas passed down through time, riddled with fact and prophecies perceived within equal status. Similar evolutions have occurred for the three kingdoms of Empyrion and the several dozen states of the Holy Empire of Roskitaya, however they have not been as drastically influential, and as such their societies have had room to develop their own unique cultures and languages. *Whilst communication, trade, cultural influence, language influence, and above all war happens between the three powers of Anglia, Empyrion and Roskitaya, the Great Northern Union remains is a constant and enigmatic mystery. Within a blunt sense, it often froms part of general knowledge that "Nobody knows what goes on in the North, as one does not simply fly a starship into the North without coming back alive." It seems that the majority of the eastern population lives in fear of the North, and hope to their various gods that the North continues their regular habits of keeping isolated and to themselves. *Intelligent aliens have not shown any sign of existence. The mere concept of life on other planets is inconceivable by the vast majority of humanity. Any possible microscopic alien life that may have existed upon colonised worlds over the millennia has most likely been overrun and extinguished by the introduction of Earth animals and plants (or greater even, viruses) onto these planets for livestock and game. *Due to farming techniques being fairly primitive, with simple deisel engines, nitrogen fertiliser and headers in use much like the food production industries of WWII Earth, populations for any inhabited planets are at most 2-3 billion people. History and Philosophy *Due to the utter elimination of modern research, replication and sourcing techniques, as well as the heavy weight of religious dogma over millennia, reliable historical recounts of what truly happened before 4500 a.i. do not exist. The only fragmented imprints of an existence before the present reside within pseudo-historical legend and religious tales, as well as ignorable things such as artefacts of the past that exist in modern language, art and culture, or the unchanging nature (and arrogant, ignorant stupidity) of human behaviour itself. *Existentialism is popular to anybody most who is truly capable of free will and thought. These comprise the absolute minority of the populace, for there are many countless billions more who would claim to be so, all the while deep down knowing nothing more than fabricated dogma and superstition. Many philosophers are well aware that often it is simply better to let yourself be brainwashed and to fall into a state of dependance and love for your government rather than sticking to yourself and your own morals, as after all: ignorance is bliss.